Now that your belly is stuffed with turkey and pumpkin pie, it’s time to shift our attention to Christmas! In the spirit of the Axemas season, we’ve...
Now that your belly is stuffed with turkey and pumpkin pie, it’s time to shift our attention to Christmas! In the spirit of the Axemas season, we’ve compiled a handful of select solo guitar arrangements of poplar holiday songs. There are alternate arrangements of two of the five songs, and the tablature ranges from easy to intermediate, with all arrangements ideally suited for acoustic or clean-tone electric guitar. And if you want even more holiday-themed guitar arrangements with tab and video, check out our best-selling Play Christmas Songs on the Guitar! DVD that’s available in our online store.
“O COME ALL YE FAITHFUL”
Pluck the strings with your individual fingertips, as opposed to strumming them, as there are several chords that include notes on non-adjacent strings. The Am chord in bar 5 is followed by an F# note on the D string’s fourth fret, which requires a bit of a fret-hand stretch to reach. You can let go of the previous E note on the same string when you go to fret the F# with the pinkie. When playing the Dm chords in bars 9 and 10, be careful not to sound the open B string until after you’ve played the chord.
“DECK THE HALL” instrumental solo
This arrangement is, for the most part, pretty straightforward and makes nice use of arpeggiated first-position chords. Try to bring out the melody notes that are interwoven into the accompaniment. The trickiest part is bar 11, wherein you need to quickly shift from an open Em chord up to a fifth-position Am—the “Stairway to Heaven” intro shape—which requires the rapid deployment of an index-finger barre across the top three strings.
“SILENT NIGHT” fingerstyle instrumental solo
This, the holiest of all Christmas songs, is a tender ballad and should be performed slowly